Arthur: The Story Begins
by Meximelt2-0
Summary: Twenty years ago a mysterious event known as "The Genesis Extinction" wiped out all of the world's starter pokemon. Sixteen year old Arthur Meylus can't decide what to do with his life, and becoming a Trainer isn't as easy as it used to be before the event. However, when exploring the marsh outside his hometown, he makes a startling discovery that changes his life forever.


Arthur: The journey begins

**Ch. 1**

**Genesis**

Arthur Meylus finished tying his boots. "Mooooooooooomm! I'm going out to the marsh, I'll be back in a couple of hours!" he shouted. "Okay hun, be careful!" she shouted back. Having been given 'permission', Arthur grabbed his backpack, hurried down the stairs, and out the front door in eager anticipation of what was to come. Arthur loved to explore. He was adventurous like that. And while he liked Novella City in all of its glory, he enjoyed wilderness much more. It was fitting then, that just to the south of town was a vast swampland, known by many as 'The Marsh', that Arthur could explore to his heart's content.

He had to be stealthy to get to his spot, as there were many dangerous pokemon in the marsh. The resident Arbok population was particularly ferocious. He thought he spotted one, but it didn't seem interested in him, as he only saw the tip of its tail as it slithered away into the brush. As Arthur approached his favorite spot in the Marsh, he began to do what he always did out here. He sat at the base of the giant tree that marked his spot, and began to reflect on his life

Arthur was sixteen years old, with his seventeenth just around the corner. He'd graduated school a year earlier, and was in the process of trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. He worked as a clerk at a local PokeMart, but he wasn't too fond of that. He knew that there were much more interesting things to make a career out of. His father was the assistant to the Novella Gym Leader, Marcus Harolson. His father had tried to get him started in Pokemon Training, but his mother would have none of it. The sheer amount of pokemon trainers was widely thought to be the cause of the genesis extinction two decades earlier, and as a result his mother harbored bitter feelings toward Trainers. She had once owned a genesis pokemon, a Piplup, but it too, died during the genesis extinction, and soon after she gave up the life of a trainer.

Arthur thought about how horrible it must have been for all of the other trainers who had lost a pokemon due to the event. All genesis pokemon, from charmander to fenniken, had died out. No Squirtles, Bulbasaurs, Charmanders, Totodiles, Chikoritas, Cyndaquils, Mudkips, Treekos, Torchics, Turtwigs, Piplups, Chimchars, Snivys, Tepigs, Oshawotts, Chespins, Fennekins, or Froakies had been seen across the world in twenty years. That had to affect a ton of people.

Many famous trainers gave up competitive pokemon after that. They say that Lance, the famed dragon master from Johto, had gone into a depression after the loss of his Charizard. Nobody has seen or heard from Red for ten years. Some say that he has retreated back to his place of refuge on Mt. Silver and become a hermit. Blue has also disappeared, though nobody has a clue about what happened to him. Not even so much as a rumor had cropped up to explain his absence.

As a result of the crisis, the Pokemon League was now much stricter about who they let capture pokemon. Only people with Trainer cards were permitted to buy pokeballs, though civilians were allowed ownership of many of the more common kinds of pokemon, like Machop or Meowth. If you wanted to catch anything rarer than that, you had to get certified, and the certification test required lots of studying. _Still, becoming a Trainer seems like a lot of fun, even if the rules are tighter than they used to be._, Arthur thought.

Arthur's thoughts were then interrupted by a flash of movement in the corner of his eye. "Silver" he muttered. "Wait… I've been exploring this marsh for years. There are no silver colored pokemon here." Intrigued, he slowly stood up, taking great care not to startle whatever it was. He had to get a look.

He studied his surroundings hard, surveying everything he could see. Then, he heard rustling in bushes on the other side of the tree. Slowly, carefully, he got closer to the rustling. He made his way around the tree to try and catch a glimpse of the strange new pokemon. When he got to the point where he could see the bush moving, he stopped, and waited. Whatever it was would soon reveal itself.

Suddenly, the flash of silver erupted from the bush, and barreled into Arthur's chest, knocking him over. Arthur recovered more quickly than his aggressor, and grabbed a hold of it before it could attack again. The little silver pokemon tried to snap at him with its unusually large jaws, and was desperately trying to break Arthur's grip. "Calm down." Arthur said to it. "I don't want to hurt you, and I would appreciate it, if you would stop trying to hurt me."

The little silver pokemon stopped squirming as hard, and instead gazed intensely at Arthur with vibrant cherry-red eyes. "That's better. Now I'm going to put you down, and try to get a better look at you."

He then did exactly that. After studying its features for a few seconds, a feeling of awe passed over him. "You can't be!" Arthur exclaimed. "and yet, I'm sure that you are." He almost hadn't recognized the little reptile, as he had only seen them in photographs and drawings before. Also, the examples that he had seen were always light blue, or green in color, never silver. However, make no mistake, the little silver pokemon that had just attacked him, was the Water Genesis of the Johto region, Totodile.


End file.
